Dare to be Ranma
by Nuvares
Summary: Ranma get hit with some chemicals after akane mallets him into a biohazard plant. now he can't see but that aint stopping him.
1. The hammer, the splash, and the blue

Disclaimer: I own nothing… except the idea and anyone that isn't in another person's published work. Ranma and co. belong to Viz video and Rumiko Takahashi. Dare devil is an affiliate of Marvel Comics and its creator Stan Lee.

"Speech"

Thought

[Signs]

"/Chinese/"

Dare to be Ranma

       "Stupid Uncute Tomboy!" Ranma shouted as he ran from his mallet wielding fiancé who insisted on forcing the toxic slop she called home cooking down his throat. This time he was surprised Ukyo wasn't in the brawl as Akane had attempted Ranma's favorite food, other than anything his mother or Kasumi made, Okonomiyaki. So what if he refused to eat the food she cooked, she refused to even taste the food while it was cooking! It wasn't fair!

       "Ranma no Baka!" The famous battle cry that had fell the greatest martial artist in the world did have one perk, a free birds-eye view of the great Tokyo ward of Nerima. Ranma could almost hear the imaginary stewardess' voices.

       'Welcome to air Akane, as your flight will be leaving soon please follow these basic safety procedures. First, please keep all limbs in your seat at all times during departure.' Ranma pulled his arms in as he dived through a hole in the Tendo wall. 'Secondly, Please keep your back upright and you head leaned back to avoid injury during takeoff.' Ranma spun to face Akane and his back went rigid as he leaned back in a limbo style bend to avoid another strike. 'Thank you for flying Akane Airline, you flight should take place shortly.' Ranma stood up but failed to dodge the golf swing follow-through and was once again moving through the air at a high velocity.

       As any who would witness the spectacle of a boy flying on a perfect parabolic curve would have deduced that it was not some random occurrence, either by the slight re-angling he seemed to manage in the midst of his flight or the lotus position and calm face he wore, and they would be right. Now Ranma's destination on the other hand was a new one for him, JBWR inc. the bio-hazardous waste removal company that serviced most of East Asia and the United states. The shift foreman had just finished updating the safety recognition sign, '683 days without an accident, only 47 days before the safety bonus is secured.' It was a rewarding job for Yoshiro Keniga, head of safety for the plant and storage yard areas. They had just received a shipment of over 20000 barrels of waste to dispose of, the largest order yet in the business' three years of operation.

      The Keniga stepped off the ladder and smiled at the sign, almost two straight years without incident. Wiping his forehead of sweat he looked up to see a small black dot come plummeting towards him, slowly growing into the shape of a boy dropping at close to terminal velocity.  The sight froze Keniga and he could only sit there and watch as the boy smashed into a flat of barrels toppling most and causing a few to split open, spilling the milky-white liquid over the ground as he continued into the heart of the barrels. When the workers finally got to where Ranma was they found him, his clothes in taters with holes burned through from where the chemical had splashed him, and one barrel was slowly leaking a small dribble into his eyes. They workers quickly extricated the unconscious Ranma and started applying a counteragent to the chemical to his burns and washing his eyes out with distilled water before bandaging them.

      "You know… he'll never see again" the on hand medic sighed as he pronounced it; one so young shouldn't have such a disability. He looks like a martial artist, maybe his school can help him the medic said as the EMT showed up and led the boy to the ambulance on a stretcher.

---------

      The world was black for Ranma as he sat up in the hospital's adjustable bed, currently his torso was raised. Is it night? Seems like I've been asleep for days... twisting his head he sought out a clock or light switch when it hit him.  The world assaulted him from all angles.

Sound pounding in his ears, painting a picture of the world around him. Twisting his head away from the majority of the noise, trying to shake the image imprinted in his mind.

      He noticed the door, or he thought it was the door, a black rectangle slowly losing shape as the lines that defined its handle and outline dissolved like a scent on the air. As if he smelled the door more than seeing it, a very unnerving concept. Right then a squeak seemed to redefine the door's handle and the shape bled into itself and he could see flashes of shoes and the lower cuffs of pant legs as the clack of steps neared him.

      "Good afternoon Mr. Doe, I'm Nagebeta-sensei. Would you mind telling me if you remember your name?" Disembodied lips and teeth spoke the words to the boy in the bed. Ranma was starting to freak out, his life had never gotten to 'floating body parts yet,' well the haunted tunnel of love was close but most of them were whole.

      "I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome school of Anything-Goes martial arts, and what do you mean by afternoon? Its pitch black in here." The feet seemed to fidget back and forth and a hand like print appeared in the view with a creek from the mattress. The odd black and white view of the world was starting to bug Ranma, first off there didn't seem to be any light unless there was a sound made. Second, everything faded once the sound was gone.

      "Let's finish this up before we talk about that. Do you have any friends or family in the Tokyo area?" The doctor's words cut off his thoughts as he put a hand to his face, feeling the gauze bandages over his eyes almost caused him to shout out. How could he see with his eyes blocked like that?

      "I live with my Pop and fiancé at the Tendo Dojo… Could you call Dr. Tofu from Nerima? He's my usual Doc."  He needed to talk to the man, Dr. Tofu know the most about Ki and auras, well Cologne and Happosai but he didn't want to deal with them. Laying back he waited for a response wanting to learn what he could about his new 'sight'.

      "Ok, I can do that. Now get some rest Ranma." The second he heard the door close, complete with the blackening of the doorway in his vision, he had his hand to his face ripping the bandages off. The cool air caused him to wince at the burned feeling of his temples and cheek bone area. Slowly lifting his eyelids he was shocked to find no change in his view, the burning sensation the only thing allowing him to know that he still had eyes.

---------

      "Hello Tendo residence, how may I help you?" Kasumi's voice answered the ringing phone, hoping that it wasn't Shampoo or Ukyo checking to see if Ranma had returned yet. She had chores to do, she didn't need to keep telling them that Ranma wasn't back yet every hour.

      "Hello, is this the residence of a Ranma Saotome?" The voice on the other line was deep and had a caring nature similar to Dr. Tofu. Thinking about the young Doctor made Kasumi flush a bit.

      "Yes it is but he isn't here right now, may I take a message?" She cheerfully asked the voice. Maybe the person will just leave a message and she could get back to cleaning the house, it would be supper soon and while she was worried about the boy who had come to be like a younger brother he knew how to take care of himself.

      "I'm sorry, no. This is Doctor Nagebeta from Tokyo General Hospital, there's been an accident and I must speak with his family, are they there?" This worried Kasumi, any accident strong enough to put Ranma into the hospital was usually some sort of challenger that would kidnap Akane. Genma was in the dining room with her father and Akane was watching Television while fuming about Ranma's disappearance for the day, imagining him over at Ucchan's or the Nekohaten playing around with his floozies.

      "Uncle Saotome!" Kasumi's voice called from the hall, a little frantic. The family crowded around the phone as Kasumi handed it to the bald martial artist. Everyone was anxious as the bald man conferred with the other end.

      "No... There must be some mistake, some way you could be wrong. YOU MUST BE WRONG!" He finished almost shouting into the receiver. His face white as a ghost from the lack of blood, his whimpers undecipherable as he sat there. "Yes, I understand..." he sounded like a man being sent to capital punishment, and to him that's what Nadoka would do.

      "Saotome! What's wrong? What happened?" Soun was worried by the reaction Genma had to the call.

      "Ranma... hospital..." was all that they could make out.

---------

      "Anyone have a clue why are we in the Special Disability Ward?" Nabiki asked a little puzzled at how Ranma could end up there.

      "Probably realized how much of a Baka he is." Akane muttered trying to hide her worry. Her sisters glared at her but said nothing, they being too worried for their friend's welfare. Their fathers, on the other hand, were in almost full form.

      "WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! NOW THE SCHOOLS WILL NEVER BE JOINED!" Soun Tendo bawled drenching and activating the curse of his best friend. [That ungrateful whelp!] Flip [How could he go and get ...] the panda's eyes watered and he stopped writing as they neared his room. Everyone wondering what was going on.

      *Crash!*

      *Thud!*

      *Bang!*

---------

      *Thud!*

      A streak of blue shot through his vision outlining everything near him in the monotone shade. Turning a bit he dropped another thing.

      *Bang!*

      Again another sound another blue flash another view of the room. This time he thought he could see an opening door and several feet flashing into and out of existence as there walked across the floor.

      He had not fully adapted to working on sound and so was staring 5 feet to the right of his guests. Reaching back he knocked over a bedpan with his foot giving an odd lumped together shape of his visitors.

      The five tried to figure out why Ranma was acting so strange. [So it's true!] Everyone, minus Ranma, turned and read the sign.

      "What's true?" Akane asked starting to get annoyed at the troublesome panda.

      "Akane?" 

      "Who else would it be Baka?"

      [His eyes! Look at his eyes!] Flip [Oh the shame!] Flip [My own son!] Akane was too busy yelling at Ranma to see the sign, but Nabiki wasn't. She looked at the pig-tailed boy's face then his eyes, her gasp brought everyone's attention.

      "Oh my!" Kasumi's phrase broke through Akane and Ranma's bickering as she saw the burns around the white orbs.

      "Saotome... How many fingers am I holding up?" Nabiki's question made the boy visibly flinch. The lips that had spoken the question were already gone and re turned his head in that direction but was still a foot off his mark.

      "Uhhhh..." He tried to think of where another object was that ye could knock over for sound, anything.  "I don't know Nabiki. I can't see it..." his admission was followed by a tsking sound.

      "Don't interrupt me Nab..." Akane started but was cut off. Her sister not even acknowledging the death glare being directed at her.

      "You're blind." The simple statement sounded like damnation and he nodded with a shame that showed just how changed he was by it.

      "Yeah... I thought the doc told ya..." he scratched the back of his head in his usual nervous fashion. Why weren't they told? And where's Dr Tofu?

      "Ranma...?" it was Akane; I guess the whole blind thing finally got through the tomboy's head, thick as it was.

      "Yeah, you and your damn mallet sent me into some chemical place and I got hit with everything they had." he finally oriented properly on Akane and she could see fully the white voids that were his eyes, and the burns on the sockets. "Thanks allot you stupid tomboy..." Nabiki was the only one to note that his insult held a harder edge to it than his usual gesture. Suddenly Ranma stepped to the side and leaned back dodging Genma's sign as it passed harmlessly over Ranma's head.

      "Saotome, how did you do that?" She was the first able to speak after witnessing the display of what would be an impossible feat had she not seen it.

      "Luck?" was all that he could reply.

      "Sorry I'm la... ka-Ka-Kasumi... Fancy meeting you here..." Tofu finally arrived.

---------

AN:

That's it for this prologue

I wanted to write more but I need to get putting things out again or else it'll just be procrastinated longer.

As usual send your comments, flames, and anything else you want to Jnuvares@hotmail.com. Please no spam or junk.

Nuvares

This, and all my fics, can be found at my site

www.angelfire.com/anime4/nuvares/

fanfiction.net

www.fanfiction.net/~nuvares/

And tannim's

tannim.anifics.com


	2. Coming home

Disclaimer: I own nothing… except the idea and anyone that isn't in another person's published work. Ranma and co. belong to Viz video and Rumiko Takahashi. Daredevil is an affiliate of Marvel Comics and its creator Stan Lee.  
  
"Speech"  
Thought Signs  
"/Chinese/"  
  
Dare to be Ranma  
  
Ranma groaned as he lay in the hospital bed, Kasumi should get a restraining order against doc tofu to stop his insane episodes. since betty wasn't there the doctor had been forced to use Ranma as a replacement since all of the Tendo's, minus kasumi who had been giggling all the time, took cover behind the hospital bed that ranma now lay in. even his father had been able to get away from the psycho doctor until Nabiki had been able to get kasumi out of the room allowing the man to calm down and eventually untwist ranma from the obviously painful position the blind boy had been folded into.  
  
"I'm sorry about that ranma," tofu spoke as he finished his chiropractic treatment of the anything goes heir. "Now what did you want to talk to me about?" he picked up the eye bindings and slowly re-wrapped them around Ranma's head causing the boy to flinch at the rough texture of the gauss.  
  
"Well for one I don't think that the doctors here know about my curse, nor would I like them to know about it. Also I was wondering how much you knew about what happens to a blind person's other senses, they get stronger right?"  
  
"Yes, at least that's what many have claimed and a lot of scientific studies have proven that humans can even develop a sonar type ability after years of training, some blind men have even been able to ride a bike when there aren't many sound distractions." the doctor explained while sitting in the visitor's chair. to Ranma though all there was a pair of lips moving as the man spoke, lips complete with teeth, a tounge and even part of the esophagus, it seemed as long as it made noise he could see it in the black and white world that he now lived. touch also defined his world as patches of the blanket that covered him appeared as he moved.  
  
"I dunno it seems different... its like I can see what I hear..." The last he said pretty quietly not knowing how the doctor would take it. he really didn't' need the doctor thinking he was crazy, but then again with his life it wouldn't be hard to make that accusation. crazy stuff happened to him all the time, this should have almost been expected. the doctors just placed his hand on Ranma's shoulder causing the arm, clothing and all to appear in his mind, the limb ending just before the doctor's shoulder.  
  
"That's what many call ghost pains Ranma. your mind is making up what it wants to see since its not used to missing the stimulation of the eyes. many people have reported this and even those that have lost limbs have reported feeling old sores that were on the missing appendage. its quite natural and the images should fade after a while." he gave a reassuring squeeze before standing and walking out of the room, his feet appearing as he moved across the floor.  
  
"But its so real..." he muttered to the empty room while he waited for more news. his father and the Tendo had already left and would return tomorrow to check up on him, Akane said she'd even bring Ukyo in to visit. he hoped his friends accepted him now that he was deformed.  
  
---------  
  
"Ranchan?" He was awoken the next day by his best friend Ukyo saying his pet name with a worried tone to her voice, sitting up he was greeted by the blackness that was his world now. Looking side to side he tried to pinpoint where the voice was coming from but had the customary lips weren't there as he awoke. seeing him so confused Ukyo reached out to touch his face, the contact flaring an arm in his mind similar to when the doctor had grabbed his shoulder.  
  
Startled by the image in his head he flinched away from the contact as if burned. the violent reaction to her touch caused ukyo to pull away downtrodden at his response.  
  
"Who's there?" he asked shaken by the entire experience. relaxing a bit  
  
he noticed that there were two small and very faint flashes coming from in front of him,  
concentrating on them he was surprised to see faint glimpses of two sets of teeth. almost like whispers of what he saw when people talked.  
  
"Baka, It's just Ukyo and me," Akane spoke causing the right teeth to flare brighter and move before fading back into the faint flashes. refocusing on the right set both Akane and Ukyo were a bit surprised to see him staring blankly right at Akane instead of to the side.  
  
"Okay... for a second there I thought Ryoga or Mousse had found me." he frowned at how those two would react to his new affliction. Ryoga would laugh his ass off before attaching him for making his life hell by sending a grasshopper to land on his nose while he slept. Mousse would most likely try to take him out now that he couldn't defend himself.  
  
he turned to Ukyo's teeth as he saw the flash of her gasping, most likely coming to the same conclusion. Mousse her and the others could handle, weather or not anyone would stop him was yet to be seen. not many of the martial artists that were in Nerima would readily help him, most were there to either challenge or kill him anyway.  
  
"Ranma, I have some good news. Your being Released from the Hospital. Dr. Tofu talked to the doctor in charge of your case and had him release you to tofu's watch." Akane piped in trying to break the somber mood that had permeated the room. even though inside she was in turmoil over the images his words brought about. it worked just not too well.  
  
"Well that's good, when do I leave?" he smiled a bit, it would be nice to actually move for once other than getting up only to have a nurse fret over him till he laid back down.  
  
"That's actually what we're here for other than to visit." Ukyo said moving closer to him while rummaging through a bag she was carrying, the movements and crinkling sounds providing some interesting images of disembodied arms and the top of a backpack.  
  
"Hope you brought a set of clothes. these hospital gowns don't exactly provide enough to get out of an indecent exposure charge." the statement got a giggle out of Ukyo and a snort from Akane illuminating the lower half of each of their faces for a brief second. Ukyo's face was contorted in a look of mirth while akane had a semi-content smile on. the smile surprised Ranma but he didn't say anything about it since he didn't know what was really going on.  
  
"Actually Kasumi thought about that already and gave me a set of your usual." Ukyou finished holding out the clothes for a moment before remembering Ranma's reason for being in the hospital and placed them on his lap with a small eep. she also took one of his hands and laid it on the clothes.  
Using one hand to hold the clothes he pulled the covers back with his other hand and swung his feet over the edge coming into a full sitting position.  
  
"Hope I'm alone or someone's getting a free show." Ranma stated dryly not wanting to deal with the problems should Akane think he was walking in on her in the bathroom or something. seeing them leave, or more hearing them leave and seeing shoes and floor. once he was alone he proceeded to strip and change into his usual tang and pants, he didn't know which color Kasumi had given them but it didn't matter much. standing up he took a tenitive step and noticed that the world seemed to come in faintly as he moved. turning he stepped again and the world flared in his mind, showing him where he needed to go.  
  
"RANCHAN!" Ukyou's cry broke his concentration a body appeared in front of him hugging him while holding him in place, the image in his mind was very detailed and if there wasn't a transparent layer of clothes he would have probably had a nosebleed. thank goodness for small favors. "Be careful!, you could have ran into something or tripped!"  
  
"Aww c'mon Ucchan, nothing happened." Ranma tried to calm the girl down when his mind flared showing him a large object aimed right for his head. it was circular and had a stick coming out of it that was attached to a pair of hands and a set of teeth screaming something that he'd heard many times before.  
  
"RANMA NO BAKA!" Like with his father's sign he was able to dodge the mallet causing it to slam into the ground while he was on the other side of Ukyou, having pulled her with him partially as he spun away from Akane's hammer.  
  
"Ranchan how'd you do that?" Ukyou asked confused about what had just happened, the hammer just come out of no where and had hit the ground before she even noticed it being there. Gotta give akane credit, I can see how she was able to get Ranchan so many times.  
  
"uhhh..."  
  
---------  
  
Sitting in his futon Ranma thought about his newfound sight, seeing without eyes, it really opened his mind to how the world worked but still left him confused more than anything. he lay there in apparent rest but in reality he was a constant flurry of thoughts and images from his newfound senses, he knew that Kasumi was in the yard hanging clothes from out the open window, the sounds of everyday city life bouncing off her and assaulting his senses like a super sonar system in the navy.  
  
Nabiki was in her room listening to her CD walkman, as he could even make out the door's outline from his bed, and akane was in the dojo. He knew this from the loud kiyaps every half minute. his father was playing shogi with Mr tendo in the living room, at least he thought they were since they never seemed to leave that board unless it was to annoy him. opening his eyes he regarded the room in the same way as when his eyes were closed, blackness occasionally tinged with blue as he moved or made sound. at least he found that sound and touch were the best conductors to his sight, smell was a secondary and he never saw something when he tasted it but that could be cause his mouth was under his eyes.  
  
the lack of kiyaps and the sliding open if his room's door alerted him to the entrance of the youngest tendo daughter, she was going to yell at him again for something. yell then out with the mallet, not that she hadn't caused enough damage to him but in the last few days that he'd been home it was pretty quiet for him aside from the constant mallet attacks when he'd "stare at her", like he could even see her if he faced her. thankfully at least nabiki and kasumi came to his aid whenever they were around reminding her of why exactly he couldn't stare at her. but then again that never stopped her before, o thought he closed his eyes and rolled so that his back was to her, maybe if he didn't'  
even look in her direction she'd not say he was staring at her like a pervert.  
  
of course this didn't bode well with the youngest tendo daughter who now thought he was ignoring her, and he was. but like the times before he somehow dodged her mallet right before it was going to smack into him, instead it demolished his pillow and part of his futon spraying the fluff into the air while Ranma rolled away from the angry girl.  
  
"How do you do that!" Akane yelled at the boy raising the mallet up to strike at him again. Ranma was truly blind again, the fluff from the pillows overloading his brain as they fell on him opening up his defenses to an old attack, an overhead swing leaving him flat on the floorboards and Akane walking away with a smug look.  
  
"That girl is going to be the death of him..." Nabiki commented looking in from the doorway.  
  
"Oh Is Ranma Having a Nap?" Kasumi said walking in to cover Ranma with a blanket. Nabiki just shook her head and walked off, mumbling about one dense sister and one that's an air-head.  
  
---------  
  
AN:  
Yes I am alive... well sorta, took a while for my friends to gather the dragon balls but it seems to have turned out alright.  
sorry for keeping everyone, but life's been a ride and I haven't been living much of it how I want.  
  
As usual send your comments, flames, and anything else you want to me but my e-mail is now Please no spam or junk.  
  
Nuvares  
  
This, and all my fics, can be found at my old site   
my new one is   
And tannim's 


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